


Stay with me

by MaddieandChimney



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, mentions of an injury/broken bone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 08:40:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25467922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: When Chimney pulls something risky to protect her brother during a call, Maddie doesn't have the best reaction.
Relationships: Howie "Chimney" Han & Bobby Nash, Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20
Collections: Madney One-Shots





	Stay with me

It’s not the first time he’s woken up in a hospital bed without his girlfriend holding his hand, but it still hurts when his _wife_ isn’t there when his eyes open. He tries to reason with himself not to be stupid, that she’s probably busy with Amelia or she’s left to get something to eat. There are a hundred reasons why she couldn’t be in the room with him right then but Bobby is looking at him with pity in his eyes.

“Maddie?” He dares himself to ask, before the Captain shakes his head. He’s nervous as he walks towards the hospital bed, cracking his knuckles before he takes a deep breath. For a moment, Chimney re-thinks of all the reasons why she wouldn’t be at his bedside, his heart thumping uncomfortably. Did she get into an accident? Was she okay?

“She won’t come.” Bobby finally gets out, rushing the words out as though they physically hurt to say, a grimace on his face. “She uh, Buck told her what you did. She was here, but…”

Chimney visibly flinches, looking down at the cast on his arm before he shakes his head, “She’s angry at me? For… saving her brother?”

His friend only nods his head, “I tried to explain to her you’ve broken your arm but are otherwise fine but she wasn’t having any of it. I’m not even sure it registered in her mind, I don’t—she just panicked, I think. I’m sure she’ll calm down.” Chimney can tell by the look on the other’s mans face that he’s not even sure he believes that for even a second and he wonders what kind of outburst his wife must have had in the waiting room to even elicit such a look on Bobby’s face. He’s more than a little glad that he missed it.

“It was instinct. If that piece of concrete had fallen on Buck—”

“I know, I know, you don’t have to explain to me. Maybe Buck told the story differently, maybe she’s having a bad day. She looked tired and she had Amelia with her.”

Chimney frowns, “So, I’m relying on her having another problem here other than me? I keep doing this to her, Bobby. Keep getting hurt or nearly getting hurt and if I’m not getting hurt I’m anxious about something. Maybe she’s just had enough, we’ve been married a few months but we’ve been together for three years. She’s probably had enough. I’m too much, maybe she’s finally realised.”

He’s feeling sorrier for himself than he’s ever felt before, wiping at the tears falling down his face with his good hand, “Am I being released tonight?” Bobby nods, “Can I come to yours? I can’t—she doesn’t want to see me. Just for tonight, I promise.”

He’s half-expecting his friend to shake his head and tell him to go home, to face his wife and just deal with the argument that comes. Instead, he smiles and reaches out to squeeze his shoulder, “You don’t even have to ask. Give her the night to calm down.”

With a nod, Chimney gulps, “Y-yeah, can’t imagine actually seeing the cast is going to go over any better. Thanks, Bobby.”

. 

Maddie tries Hen’s house first, only to be told he wasn’t there. So her next option is Bobby’s, but she doesn’t know what she’s going to do if he’s not there. She tries to panic as subtly as she can manage as she drives the familiar route to Bobby and Athena’s house, her grip tight on the steering wheel because her mind is whirring with memories of her screaming at her brother in the waiting room. How she had practically pushed Bobby off her and then snatched her crying two-year-old daughter from Eddie’s arms and stormed out of there.

She was embarrassed, because no one knew why she’d react that way and really, Maddie hadn’t seen it coming either. The moment Buck had told her that Howie would have been fine if he didn’t jump in the way, everything inside her broke. The alternative could have been losing her brother or him being significantly injured in a way that trumps a broken arm but _still_ , the reality of losing her husband hits her like a tonne of bricks. It wasn’t just her anymore, they had a daughter and Maddie wasn’t ready to be a single mom. Not to one child and most definitely not to two.

Still, even she recognises how out of proportion her reaction was, how shocked the 118 had looked and hurt because they were meant to be a family. Maddie knows she has a lot of apologising and probably even more explaining to do but she’s just not ready. Not yet.

Amelia had been a difficult pregnancy; there was the months and months of severe morning sickness that landed her with an IV drip in her arm more than once. And then she had made her appearance into the world eight weeks too early and Chimney had promised her he would always fight to come home to them because if Amelia could fight and win to come home at that age, then he could, too. It’s his promise that she clings to when she hears that the 118 have been called out to something dangerous whilst she’s in work, the promise she remembers when there’s been an earthquake or a bush fire or _anything_ that could stop him from coming home.

For him to risk his life during what should have been a simple call? It terrified her more than anything. Amelia adored her daddy and the very reality that he could not come home one day still paralysed Maddie no matter what, but hearing he had put himself in the line of fire on purpose had set something off inside of her she couldn’t describe. “Mommy?”

She snaps herself out of it to look behind her the moment they pull up outside of the beautiful home that has hosted so many celebrations. “Yes, baby?”

“Daddy?”

“Yeah, daddy.” She’s not mad anymore, just so completely exhausted. She had wanted to tell him, she had been just been trying to figure out the best way to do it. And then he—he could have died. It was _just_ a broken arm and he would be absolutely fine, but the baby growing inside of her and the little girl resting on her hip right then as she walked towards the door she had knocked on a thousand times before, caused a terror inside of her that made little to no sense.

It’s Bobby who answers the door, a frown on his face before he takes the two-year-old from her and gestures his head towards the dining room. It breaks her heart when she hears the excited squeal from their daughter, arms reaching out for the other man the moment they get close enough. The way his eyes light up the moment he sees her, and how happy she is just to be settled on his lap once more. He wraps his good arm around the tiny girl, her head resting in the crook of his neck as she gives him the best Amelia cuddle she possibly can, two chubby arms wrapping around his neck as she giggles.

He could have died. And then Amelia wouldn’t have him and Maddie would just be a single mom to two kids that deserved to have him in their lives. She takes a breath as she settles her bag on the floor, watching as he carefully sets the toddler down, Bobby hovering in the kitchen as he tries to pretend as though he’s not eavesdropping. She doesn’t care, she’s already aired enough dirty laundry to last the 118 at least a week’s worth of gossip, so what’s a little more?

“Are you okay?” She finally asks, looking him up and down when he stands, but not moving towards him.

“Do you care?”

It’s a fair question, but one that makes her flinch anyway, chewing down on her bottom lip before she takes a breath, “Of course I care. I care more than you could know but—you… you made me a promise. You promised you would fight to come home to us and you just… throwing yourself in the way like that? You could have…”

“I was saving your brother from what I knew could be catastrophic, I was trying—”

“To do the right thing. I know. I know.” There’s a defeated tone to her voice, her shoulders slumping and the tears finally falling before she purses her lips and shakes her head, trying to think of the best way to explain it. There’s no way, she’s can’t put into words how terrified she was of losing him every single day, only to get the call that he’s in hospital. “And obviously I’m grateful. I was just… scared. I’ve been scared since the day we brought Amelia home and I get it, stuff is going to happen and you’re going to get hurt but… I overreacted. When Buck told me you pulled off this ‘superhuman’ move,” Even Chimney flinches at that one and Bobby practically slams his hand into his face and shakes his head because of course Buck would have over-dramatized it just a little. “to save his life… I just… you did the right thing. I was wrong. I can’t explain right now why I reacted like that, but I—I _did_ overreact. And I should have been there to hold your hand.”

Hopeful eyes look up at him, a deep frown on her face when he only lets out a sigh, his eyes moving towards Bobby as though he needs some form of approval from the older man before he finally looks at her, “You’re my wife, I wanted you there.”

“I know.”

“It hurt when I woke up and Bobby told me you weren’t there, Maddie. I did what I did and I’d do it again if it meant saving Buck or Hen or Eddie or Bobby… or anyone. I’d jump in the way if I was the closest because that’s what we have to do and I’m sorry if you think that’s careless or breaking my promise but—”

It hurts even more because she knows he’s right, she gets it. If she were out in the street with her brother or with anyone she loves and she had the choice to shove them out of the way of impending danger and putting her own life in jeopardy at the same time, she’d make the choice. “I can’t—I wish I could—I was just scared. I needed you at home for… reasons and then I got the call and I was already tired and over-thinking and I just… I don’t know how to explain it other than I was terrified. I’m sorry.”

“Me too.” He murmurs, eyes moving towards their giggling, over-active daughter as she grabs her mother’s bag and forces it to topple over, Maddie’s cheeks turning a bright shade of red when the contents pour out over the floor.

It’s Bobby who notices it first, his eyes wide, trying to hold back his smile because why else would she be carrying it around if it was anything other than good news? They’d been trying for years since Amelia, to no avail. The doctors had no clear-cut reason for it, and they had finally decided that they would just have one, beautiful daughter who meant the world to them even if they longed to give her a sibling. It’s easy to see why she reacted the way she did knowing how much they had longed for that second child, how they wanted to give Amelia a sibling.

Chimney’s eyes finally settle on the object he’s seen far too many times since Amelia was born. Negative after negative, disappointment following confusion and sadness every single time Maddie had realised their efforts weren’t working. “You’re pregnant?”

“We’re pregnant.” She quickly mumbles, bending down to practically throw everything back in her bag as she shakes her head, giving her daughter a disappointed look before she dares herself to look back up at her husband.

“H-how long have you known?”

“A few days. I wanted—I wanted to get a blood test first, this is… the fifth test and um, I wanted to be sure before I told you. I didn’t want to get our hopes up.” Like they had done so many times before, eager eyes counting down the minutes only to be left trying to accept the reality that it probably wasn’t going to happen for them. Not again.

The world as Chimney knows it is starting to make a little more sense again, suddenly not caring that they aren’t alone when he wraps the one arm he can around his wife and grins, despite everything. “We’re having another baby? We’re actually—” He can see the hope in her eyes, the way she’s trying not to smile too much before she nods her head.

“I-I think so? I need a doctor to confirm, we’ve been trying so long and I’m a lot older now than I was with Amelia so—”

“We’re having a baby, I can _feel_ it. This is happening.”

“Congratulations, you two.” The wary look in Bobby’s eyes has gone, replaced by one of pride as he looks between the two, a grin on his face as he speaks, before he bends down easily to pick Amelia up from the ground. The little girl, completely oblivious to everything going on around her as Maddie and Chimney just look at her for a second.

It’s Chimney who smiles, only for Maddie to shrug her shoulders, “We’ll see. Let’s just… keep it between the three of us for now.”

Her husband knows better than to take her disenchantment personally, pressing his lips to her forehead, knowing he’s seen the tears falling down her face far too many times with every negative test she’s thrown in the bin. “Deal.” He whispers, pulling her as close as he can before her hand gently moves up the cast on his arm with a pout.

“Deal.” Bobby echoes, before he settles Amelia down on the kitchen counter, ruffling her hair, “Now why don’t mommy and daddy go do what they need to do to put a smile on mommy’s face and daddy out of my house, and we can have some Uncle Bobby and Amelia time?” Amelia is all too eager to nod her head, grinning back at both her parents who nod in agreement.

“Thought we agreed on Grandad Bobby.” Chimney whispers to Maddie, who rolls her eyes and shrugs her shoulders, moving to press her lips to her daughter’s forehead before her arms wrap tightly around Bobby. 

“Thank you for taking care of him.” 

“Anytime Maddie, anytime.” 


End file.
